"I'm late! I'm late! I'm so late!" The girl mumbled as she ran down a hallway in the main building of Sunagakure. "Temari's gonna kill me."

Her bare feet barily made a sound on the wooden floor as was the ninja way, especially when that ninja was a taijutsu specialist. The simple white dress she wore seemed rumpled, like she had slept in it recently. The ninja headband tied around her forehead bore the symbol of the Village Hidden in the Sand, the village she had aligned herself with. Her blonde hair spilled over her shoulders and into her face, but the young ninja did not care enough to fix it. She rarily had the time anyways.

As she turned a corner, the ninja's blue eyes widened in surprise at the unexpected presence before her, and she barily had time to actually register who the person she was about to run over was, before she quickly performed a series of hand-signs and passed straight through them.

"I'm very sorry, but I'm terribly late!" She called over her shoulder, just before turning another corner. A sudden realization overtook her and she quickly ran back. "Oh, and happy birthday, Gaara, sir! Sorry I didn't get you anything!" Then, she spun around and took off again.

Gaara of the Desert, Kazekage of Sunagakure a.k.a. the Village Hidden in the Sand, stared peplexed at the space where the strange female ninja had previously occupied. His blue eyes wandered over to the corner than back again to the spot and Gaara frowned slightly.

"It's not my birthday..." he muttered, before turning and walking away in the opposite direction.

But when he entered his office to find it packed with oddly wrapped packages from here, there, and neverwhere, he made his way over to the calendar and discovered that it was, infact, January 19th.

So, he sat down and opened the presents. Upon opening Naruto's, he felt the urge to hunt down the fox-boy and throttle him. Gaara of the Desert was not amused by the picture of himself sitting in an ice cream dish covered in sundae toppings and a cheery with the caption "Gaara of the Dessert" written underneath. But, he relented when he realized that killing Naruto would not bring him any satisfaction in the long run.

Rock Lee gave him some bandages and picture of himself doing his trademark "good-guy" pose with the words "Be Happy" scrawled across it. Lee's girlfriend (Gaara couldn't really remember her name, but he thought that his sister might have fought here back in their first Chuunin exam...) sent him some basic weapon-art's scrolls that he felt would come in handy some day. The idiot-er Naruto's girlfriend, Hinata-something, sent him a picture of all of her and Naruto's Konoha friend's, the "Rookie Nine", Team Gai, and all of their teachers. Sakura Haruno sent him a first-aid kit. Lady Hokage Tsunade sent him a bottle of sake.

Gaara decided he was going to need it by the time this day was through.

His siblings had not given him anything. At least, not that he could find. Gaara didn't really expect anything though. He hadn't even known it was his birthday until he had checked the calendar after that girl's strange greeting that moring.

So, Gaara began to fill out paperwork for the next few hours. Over that time, Temari came and presented him with a pillow embroidered with little brown teddy bears and wisps of sand. She then quickly teleported away before Gaara could kill her. After he had calmed down, Kankuro made his appearance and presented his Kazekage brother with a set of eye-liner pencils. Gaara's sand just barily managed to scrape his cheek before the puppet-master had teleported away as well.

By the end of the day, all Gaara wanted to do was go to sleep, turn into a demon, and run rampant on the innocent villagers. Unfortunately, the Akatsuki had taken away his demon, so he could now sleep just like any other normal person. Damn those Akatsuki bastards. Damn his siblings and friends. Damn this cursed day.

With a grunt, Gaara of the Desert stood and stalked out of the room-

-and ran straight into the young ninja from this damn day's begining. Effectively knocking her, and him to the ground.

"Oh dear! I am terribly sorry, Gaara, sir!" She exclaimed, jumping to her feet and pulling him to his. "I wasn't watching where I was going again! I just wanted to give you your birthday present, since I couldn't this morning." She reached into the pocket of her dress and pulled out a small, neatly wrapped package. "I felt bad about not getting you anything, so after Temari and me finished our meeting, I ran out to find you this!"

With a sigh, Gaara took the proferred package and began to open it. Inside was a silver chain necklace with a small pendant. Upon closer inspection, the pendant revealed itself to be a brown, teddy bear. With a pink bow tied around it's neck.

Gaara of the Desert let out a growl, but when he lifted his head to yell at the girl, she had already vanished.

So, instead, Gaara put the necklace on, the pictures on his nightstand, the bandages, weapon's scrolls, and first-aid kit in his drawer, and the pillow on his bed, and the sake under it. As for the eye-liner...

Maybe this birthday hadn't been so bad after all.

January 20th, Kankuro the Puppet-Master stumbled out of bed and into the adjoining bathroom. He let out a wide yawn and glanced into the mirror.

His scream shook the whole house.

With a maniacle grin, Gaara rolled over in bed and went back to sleep. Maybe those eye-liner pencils weren't so bad either...